While millions of Americans look with awe to the Federal Reserve to protect the nation's financial well being, millions more mistrust the Fed, seeing it as an unaccountable, private banking cartel siphoning off citizens' wealth and manipulating America's economy for the benefit of a hidden elite.

Where does the truth lie? That's the question that's asked – and answered in-depth – in the July issue of WorldNetDaily's acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine.

Titled "THE FEDERAL RESERVE: FRAUD OF THE CENTURY," Whistleblower documents authoritatively and with uncommon clarity how the "Federal Reserve" – which is neither part of the federal government, nor does it rely on monetary reserves – is an unconstitutional, unelected cartel that literally creates the devastating problems it was supposed to prevent.

Today, the entire Western financial world holds its breath every time the Fed chairman speaks, so influential are the central bank's decisions on markets, interest rates and the economy in general. Yet the Fed, supposedly created to smooth out business cycles and prevent disruptive economic downswings like the Great Depression, has actually done the opposite.

"From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the burst of the dotcom bubble" in 2001, charges U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, "every economic downturn suffered by the country over the last 80 years can be traced to Federal Reserve policy."

While many Fed defenders claim it worked valiantly to prevent or minimize the ravages of the Great Depression, in reality the Fed caused the Depression and greatly increased the severity of its effects.

In fact, as July's Whistleblower documents, the Fed's new chairman, Ben Bernanke, admits that the Federal Reserve was responsible for the Great Depression. "We did it," Bernanke said, adding, "We're very sorry."

But the Fed's sins go way beyond the Great Depression. "Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy," said Paul, the congressman best known for his steadfast commitment to the U.S. Constitution.

"In addition," said the Texas Republican, "most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve's inflationary policies. This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the American people."

And that's just the beginning. In this special Whistleblower issue , the crucial subject of economics and money – often deliberately made overly complicated and confusing – is laid out in the clearest way possible.

Whistleblower takes readers on a stunning time-travel journey back to 1913, to a train on its way to Jekyll Island, just off the coast of southern Georgia, where America's wealthiest and most influential bankers got together in secret and hatched their plan for creating the private banking cartel that would control the American economy. It would deceptively be named the Federal Reserve to create the impression it is part of the federal government.

Without resorting to financial jargon or doubletalk, Whistleblower explains in plain, commonsense language exactly how the Fed works and how Americans' formerly gold-backed currency has been corrupted and much of their buying power lost, thanks to the Fed, and how this continues into the present.

Although today the governors of the Federal Reserve are literally the gods of the nation's money supply and financial policy, in previous eras of American history, leaders warned specifically against an unaccountable, unelected central bank:

"I sincerely believe ... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." – Thomas Jefferson

"Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money." – Daniel Webster

"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce." – James A. Garfield

"All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation." – John Adams"For this issue of Whistleblower," said David Kupelian, managing editor of WND and Whistleblower, "we tried to remedy John Adams' concern over Americans' 'ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.' So we worked very hard to come up with the most credible, most understandable, yet comprehensive analysis of the Fed possible."

Kupelian added. "This issue will go a long way toward giving you the understanding you need – not only regarding this nation's extraordinarily deceitful banking and money system, but also, to help you make better financial and life decisions for the sake of yourself and your family."